Witness In Drug Case Tells Of Threat

October 29, 1988|By John Gorman.

Accused cocaine kingpin John Cappas sent a message to one of his chief lieutenants last month, threatening to kill him by jamming a ballpoint pen through his eye if he testifies at Cappas` upcoming trial, according to testimony in U.S. District Court.

Cappas also instructed the former henchman, Nicholas Ahrens, 22, to testify that he was threatened by federal authorities and to say he was told that if he failed to testify as a prosecution witness, he would face the maximum penalty and would be blamed for the 1982 murder of Dianne Masters.

Masters` husband, Alan, and two former police officials are awaiting trial in federal court on charges that they conspired to kill her. No one has been charged with actually committing the murder.

The threat to Ahrens was made in a note from Cappas, which was delivered on Sept. 28 by William Hope, the leader of a Chicago street gang who was jailed with Cappas and Ahrens at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to testimony by Internal Revenue Service Agent Kevin Phillips.

During Hope`s sentencing Thursday, Phillips read an affidavit signed by Ahrens in which he says the note also threatened that if he didn`t testify as Cappas instructed, ``word would be spread throughout the prison system that I was cooperating with the government and wouldn`t be safe anywhere.``

If Ahrens did as Cappas instructed, Ahrens said in his affidavit, ``no one would know of my cooperation with the government and everything would be forgotten.``

Ahrens also mentions that he was warned to ``watch out for the ballpoint pen.

``This was a reference to having a ballpoint pen shoved in my eye. I understood this to be a threat on my life. Cappas had previously told me a prisoner had died that way. It will shut you off like a switch,`` Ahrens said in the statement.

Ahrens said in his affidavit that he recognized the handwriting as that of Cappas, 22, whom he has known for 10 years. Phillips testified that the IRS document lab had identified the handwriting as that of Cappas.

Phillips testified about the affidavit during a sentencing hearing for Hope. Prosecutors Larry Rosenthal and Kristina Anderson had sought a lengthy prison term for Hope, who was convicted last month on federal charges of a felon possessing a firearm. He had prior convictions for forgery, auto theft and deviate sexual assault. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Bua.

Ahrens also said in the affidavit that Hope had bragged that he was the head of a ``nationwide gang`` and had once ordered a murder by ``baseball bats because he had a beef with the victim.``

Cappas, Ahrens and 16 others were charged last month with using death threats and strong-arm collection tactics while operating a drug ring. Cappas is scheduled for trial before U.S. District Court Judge Charles Kocoras on Dec. 3.